


Six Stories And One Wish

by NoMoreTears707



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Anthology, Eruri Week 2019, Fireworks, Fluff, Height difference, Hurt/Comfort, Kuchel too, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Only One Bed, Reincarnation AU on Chapter 7, Romance, Roommates, Rumors, Veterans in minor roles, ackerbond, canonverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-09-27 01:01:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20399080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoMoreTears707/pseuds/NoMoreTears707
Summary: A little anthology of stories inspired by Erwin, Levi and all the moments we can imagine about them together.For Eruri Week 2019! 💞





	1. Story 1. Roommates

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! My English is not very good, but I made these stories for mere practice. 
> 
> I hope you like it! ♥

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin wants something, but Levi is not sure about it.

**E**rwin's question is like an arrow that goes right through his back. However, it fails to disturb him, it cannot.

The answer is too obvious for him to be seduced by the idea:

"No," he says.

Behind the most solid mask of apathy, Levi feels sorry to notice, almost in slow motion, how Erwin's smile gives way to absolute seriousness, as if, suddenly, he wasn't the Erwin that only he knows, that one that lowers all his guards, that destroys all the walls that could stand between them; when he loses the smile, he becomes the Erwin of the missions, of the battles.

Everyone's.

"Levi, there's nothing to worry about: my room is far from the rest, at the end of the hall. Nobody moves around, nobody will notice the difference," Erwin explains calmly, patiently.

"I said no," Levi repeats, tired. The idea, meanwhile, tries to take place in his mind, but no, there's no way.

This is not the time nor the place for _that_.

"It's late, time for you to take a shit and sleep." Levi gets up from his seat and goes to his room without further ado.

"Levi…," he hears how Erwin calls him just before he lets Commander's office behind.

.

.

.

He sits on the chair where he usually sleeps, dressed in his neater clothes after a quick bath. When he crosses his arms and gets comfortable on his seat, on which he put a cushion that Hanji had given him shortly after his promotion (what a huge surprise to discover that the Captain slept more sitting than in a bed), Levi tries to think about the next expedition, the training of the next day, whatever. Without success, he tries to think about the general cleaning he wants to start tomorrow morning, in which recruits he will choose to assist him, in which products he will use. He almost gets distracted, and no.

"I want you to move to my room," that bastard had proposed.

Hearing how Erwin's deep voice echoes inside his head, feeling even the voice's vibration, as if Erwin were part of him (he is), he gives up: he cannot refuse to think about it, to imagine it.

They have been in a relationship for two years. It doesn't mean they are boyfriends, like two young recruits distracted from their responsibilities for a cheesy love story; it’s not that everybody knows, something that would be impossible given their circumstances, but what they have is, above all, important. It’s something huge, powerful, and needs to be protected despite it.

Unfortunately, this context, that of the Survey Corps, isn’t the best one, not for them, not to live in the same room like two kids fallen in love.

Levi clicks his tongue. He doesn’t give a damn what people believe, but the Survey Corps are his life, it's the path that he has chosen to share with Erwin, one that could lead them to the truth, the place where they give their hearts no matter what. He cannot enjoy to live with him in this situation, not in the way that Erwin has suggested. He has no right.

Frustrated, he tries to sleep, strives to do so by silencing Erwin's voice, which rumbles and rumbles inside his head, which vibrates until he shivers because of it.

Someone knocks on the door, and who is on the other side is as obvious as his overwhelming refusal was.

"Go away," Levi says approaching the door, but without opening it. "It's late, you have too many reports to write tomorrow, too many letters for too many pigs."

"That can wait. Come on, let me talk to you for a moment."

Do voices smile? Levi swears they do: it's enough to listen to how Erwin speaks to assure it. He swears that the voice smiles when he speaks to him, that it does it by expressing calmness, understanding, an intimacy that only when they are alone is allowed.

Weak to his voice and his smile despite being Humanity's Strongest, Levi opens the door reluctantly; Erwin enters, closes and hugs him without regards.

"I'm sorry," Erwin whispers right over his head, resting his chin between his hair. "It seemed like a good idea to me, more considering that Mike and Nanaba…"

Levi barely raises his eyebrows, something he only does when an unusual surprise invades him.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he asks when he lets go, eager to get away from that chest that beats so fiercely against his face, from that voice that vibrates inside of him, as if it were part of him.

Erwin smiles, just as his voice has done, and brings his hands behind his back.

"Mike told me this morning: they have been sharing Nanaba's room for two weeks. They agreed to tell me because they considered it unethical not to do so."

"Guess what? It is."

"I know, but can I judge them? We face an enemy that we know nothing about, we lose friends, comrades, and we fear we cannot stop a new attack. Since Maria Wall fell, every day is more difficult than the previous one: right now, uncertainty drowns the Survey Corps." Erwin grabs Levi’s left shoulder with his right hand, holds it tightly by exerting the precise pressure, with that heat that his hands always maintain when he touches him even with his clothes on; Levi looks at the opposite side, determined not to give up, not to allow this bastard to win thanks to his charm, that who knows exactly how to defeat him. "This are the most difficult times for us; if we want to prevail and get ahead, if we want to achieve our goals, we need these too, this kind of things. Levi…" Erwin caresses his cheek; Levi fails to avoid his gaze, and then he's lost, and the blue of the sky drags him, and frees him, and…

A fury of unknown nature runs down Levi's spine; it's like when he's facing a titan and knows exactly what to do.

He looks at the door with the coldest eyes he has.

"Have you finished your motivational speech? I don’t give a shit, Erwin. I…!"

A kiss interrupts him, a kiss so deep that it makes his legs falter. Arms hold him, surround his body with a heat he knows too much, to an inconceivable limit, unfair in a context like this, where losing is the only thing that people like them can aspire to. The eternal despair, the uncertainty when they left the walls behind.

Not knowing if they will return, or not, or what.

Lips kiss him, and they kiss him, and the arms embrace him. His head is spinning, and the strength that gives him so much popularity in the midst of horror leaves him. Until the lips slide in a perfect way against him, first when they take the soul away from his body, after when they return it by the most delicate softness that ends the kiss.

"Do you feel it's unfair for us to enjoy something that many of our comrades have not been able to?"

The words that Erwin leaves whispered over the moisture that covers his lips make him shiver. Levi had no idea where the fury that had invaded him so wildly came from, and yes, Erwin is right.

It's about _them_.

"I don't like that shit about taking advantage of our position to get benefits of this kind," he says in a tiny voice, between furious and aroused, more moved than he likes to feel, the inevitable when it comes to the memory of so many lost comrades. "You're right, Erwin: we need this too, we all need something to find comfort, or distraction, or whatever, but I don't approve this for me if it's not for everyone."

As soon as he finishes, Levi realizes his position: Erwin has him cornered against the door, with his huge arms around his waist. Just for looking at Erwin's eyes, so naturally fixed on him, he feels he's lost once again.

But no.

Erwin smiles with the peace of mind so common on him when he knows that he's right.

"I knew you'd say that."

"Ah, did you?"

"Yes, and when I knew you’d tell me this I understood that you’d be right, so I proposed something to Mike and Nanaba, the same thing that I’ll propose to you: if a situation of this nature happens between two recruits, if they request it arguing some kind of emotional support, we’ll allow them to access to share the room in training and reorganization times after expeditions, only here, in Trost, when the barracks is usually quieter. We'll do it as long as they show that this momentary coexistence doesn't distract them from their duties. The same to Mike and Nanaba, and of course to myself."

"And what about me?"

Erwin caresses his face with an index finger. The smile of his mouth is identical to that of his voice.

"You'll not get distracted: I know you. But if I notice that it doesn't work for me, well, I promise to ask you to return to the room that has been assigned to you as Captain."

"This one."

"Yes."

"But this isn’t ethical for a man in your position, Commander," Levi says pretending a tone of voice too solemn for him.

Of course, he fails, and Erwin laughs softly before his face, with a childish charm that sometimes appears inside his eyes. How calmed he is and how little right he has to…!

"Technically, it's unethical to get your tea in _that_ way, Captain, and I'll not stop doing it."

Oh, _that_ tea.

Levi takes a deep breath: Erwin has won, yes, but he won't recognize it, not today. He lets go of him to open the door.

"I see…"

He holds the handle looking right into his eyes.

"Is that a yes?" Erwin asks as he stops under the threshold, without even blinking as he returns the same look, one that shows the same intensity.

Containing a smile, Levi pushes him out the door and closes it on his face.

He knows there's no need to answer him, that Erwin knows they will be roommates exactly as he wishes.

When Erwin is able to put himself in his place at the level at which Levi will always put himself in the place of all the members of the Survey Corps, he wins no matter what.

Because he has that damn voice that smiles and fills him, that's part of him, like a titan that Levi will never _want_ to defeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!! ♥♥♥


	2. Story 2. Ackerbond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Kenny's death, Levi remembers a tale that her mother told him before she died.

**H**e curled up against his mother's chest and closed his eyes. The room, a tiny one, was totally dark. Outside, the Underground City was mired in the cruellest of winters. It was as if not only the people from the outside ignored them, as if they were nothing more than rats muttering under their feet; that cold made Levi feel that even the world itself had forgotten them. It was too much.

Inhuman, that it was.

"What happened, sweetie?" his mother asked hugging him with more emphasis. What strong arms she had! The most invincible that could exist, the only ones able to protect him from the cold, and the injustice, and the world itself.

"I can't sleep…" Levi whispered. He didn't need to tell her that the cold was the reason.

He pressed his closed eyelids against his mother's white shirt. She rubbed and rubbed his hair, then his cheeks, then his neck. Finally, she laid his warm hands on his back. Because Kuchel's arms weren’t only the strongest.

They were the warmest.

"Do you want me to sing for you?"

"… You don’t sing quite well, mom."

"Hey!" They squeezed each other under the covers, laughing like two kids. "You should be my number one fan, honey. But you're right: Mommy is very bad at it. It's not a talent common in our family!"

Kuchel's statement triggered a single idea in Levi's childish mind:

"And what talent do we have?"

His mom's fingers sank into his back; her thin body tensed, cooled even more. A second later, she was the same as ever.

A chuckle preceded her words:

"Maybe one day I'll tell you, when you grow up."

"No. Now."

"No."

"Now!"

"No!"

"But…!"

"Tickles!"

His mom's fingers scratched him so much and so fast that Levi got defeated very quickly. Laughing hard, they hugged even more.

"It's not fair, you always beat me with tickles!"

"It's mommy's power, sweetie!"

"But why I have to wait to grow up? You never talk about our family!"

That’s precisely why he had needed to ask: he knew that last names existed; that was what Lola, the woman who lived in the next room, had told him one of the many times in which, for work, her mother had left him in her care for a couple of hours:

"The last name is our other name, the one that our whole family has in common. You surely have one! You should ask your mom!"

He had tried: she had said no, that her family had no last name. Levi was too young to question her.

However, how curious he was about that.

Taking him by the cheeks, his mother lifted his jaw. Despite the darkness of the room, Levi swore to see her eyes.

Above all, he swore to see the warmth of her smile.

"I promise I'll tell you some day," she said. "But now it's time to sleep, okay? I'll tell you a tale!"

"Which one? Is it a new one or is that about the angry guy with a hat and her brave sister against their neighbours?"

"No! This is new!" His mother embraced him and spoke in whispers, laughing very, very sweetly. "Once upon a time there was a young king with a hair colour that was more golden than gold. He was too young and the last member of the royal family alive: his father had died in a war against another kingdom, so…

“He was alone and he didn’t know how to reign.

“Since he had a lot of power thanks to the rich and huge kingdom that he had inherited, the young king had inherited many enemies, too. For that, he understood that if he wanted to protect his crown, he needed someone to protect his life personally.

"He called the strongest knights in the kingdom: his intention was to find the best bodyguard in the world, one at the height of his relevance. He subjected the candidates to a thousand and one tests, judged all their results; many lives were lost during the process. But the perfect candidate appeared. He was a young man with black hair (like yours!), and his abilities were extraordinary, as if he were an angel born just to protect the king, not a simple knight. The king chose him, of course, but the knight said no. The king asked him why he refused, if he participated in all that tests to be his protector.

"The knight told him that he would only follow him if he learned how to be kind to his people, that only for such a man he would give his life.

"The king was enraged! How daring the knight, make demands on him! He expelled him from the kingdom and forbade him to return. But the knight's words had already left a scar on his thoughts: did a king like him, one who was an inexpert and didn’t know how to take care of his people, deserve to be protected?

"Why to be protected, if he didn't protect anyone?

"Afflicted, the king started to help his people in many ways, with food for the poor, with a roof for the homeless, with work and education for everybody, attending all kinds of needs to give all of them a better life inside his kingdom… It wasn't that he wanted to win the knight's interest by doing so, he didn't want to see him never again! But, inside of him, he needed to confirm that being the king had meaning. He needed to know that he was giving his best for his people!

"He needed to know that his life _deserved_ to be protected. 

"Only then the knight return.

"He came and said: my king, I’m the last one of my clan, a family of talented warriors. I swear eternal loyalty to you in exchange for your loyalty not to me, but to the people.

"Moved, the king accepted. Years passed, and the knight saved his life countless times, and for saving him he saved the people from invaders, from unnecessary war, from pain. And the knight's children did the same for the king's children, and the two families became…"

.

.

.

What was next? He hadn’t thought about that tale for years, but how inevitable have been to do so intermittently during the last two weeks, after seeing Kenny die.

Kenny, his uncle.

The idea still seems strange; that last name still misplaces him.

"Ackerman," he whispers, annoyed, and no, he doesn't recognize that last name as his own.

How, if he knows nothing about his family?

His mother died some months after telling him that tale, without telling him a single word about the Ackermans. Although, knowing what he knows now, that the Ackermans opposed the first king since he didn’t want the humanity to survive, Levi thinks he could be certain about something:

She had told him about their family. She did it metaphorically, through that childish tale about that king and his faithful knight.

He has almost no data: he only knows that the Ackermans were opposed to the king, and that they are obviously warriors, as confirms, besides Kenny, Mikasa and that awakening that Kenny had described once, identical in the three of them. The three had it, yes.

How many truths did that old tale tell?

Why his mom didn't want to tell him?

"Were you waiting for me? I thought you’d be asleep."

Levi is dragged from his thoughts by Erwin's voice. He looks at him: a meeting with Pixis separated them an hour and a half ago, but here he is. He has sat on their bed, just next to Levi’s legs, those are covered with sheets.

"Don't get your hopes up, old man," Levi says straight as an arrow, "the trip was too long, I don't want to fuck."

Erwin laughs so naturally that the latest events seem like a work of fiction, even the loss of his arm.

Two weeks have passed since Historia's crowning: just today they have returned from the Capital, and they must leave Trost soon, again and again, to finalize details to retake Wall Maria. Erwin wants to start in two months, or two and a half. It’s still uncertain how long it will take them to be ready.

At least for today, they finally have time to rest.

From the carriage in which they had travelled together some hours ago that Erwin seems content, as if he had been waiting for this little free time. Levi also needs it, of course, but a feeling he still doesn't understand, that lies buried somewhere in his heart, hasn't left him alone for a moment.

What the fuck is it?

"Easy, I'm tired too." Erwin unbuttons his shirt as he can with his left hand. He smiles looking at the third button, just before looking at him again.

The look doesn't demand; ask lovingly. Levi sits on the bed and helps to undress him without further ado. To sit down has made the sheets, which were covering him up to the chest, expose his lack of clothes.

"I thought you didn't want to make it," Erwin says while Levi unfastens the leather straps.

"Not wearing clothes doesn't imply anything, you are the one with dirty ideas."

Erwin laughs while Levi, with agile and fast fingers, finishes undressing him from the waist up. His laugh it’s like a caress at a specific point of his heart, as if Erwin's fingers had reached a part of it that Levi didn't remember.

What the fuck is it?!

When Levi finishes, they lay under the sheets in absolute silence for entire minutes, Erwin circling his shoulders with his arm, Levi with his cheek on Erwin’s chest. Their touches don't go beyond where the hands reach, one of Levi's shoulders, Erwin's waist. In the room it reigns a peace that lacks respect, with joy, to the uncertainty of the outside.

“Levi, can I ask you a question?” Erwin asks in a whisper.

“What do you want?”

“About that man…”

"Kenny?"

"Yes. We haven't talked about him, not beyond the serum…" Erwin's fingers sink into Levi's shoulder. A single touch spreads calm throughout the bed. "Did you ask him something about…?"

"He wasn't my father."

"No?"

"He was my uncle, my mother's older brother."

"That means you are an Ackerman?”

"Apparently."

"Mikasa…"

"I asked her if she knew him, but she didn't know much about her father's family. She also felt that kind of awakening."

“I see.”

It follows a new silence, a deep one, until Erwin’s voice breaks it once more:

"Levi Ackerman…"

Erwin giggles. It sounds quite tender when he says it, but he doesn’t recognize that last name at all.

"I don't like it," Levi says.

"I do. It sounds… very you somehow."

Erwin goes from holding his shoulder to stroking his hair. Levi feels he falls asleep for the attentions.

"I don’t care about my last name."

It’s late for that.

"I know, Levi." A kiss on his forehead makes Levi frown. Erwin smiles over his thin eyebrows. "But it makes me think about something: Isn't it curious that Mikasa and you are so strong, like Kenny was? As if the Ackermans were knights taken from children's tales, a clan of talented warriors who protect the kingdom from the shadows…"

"You heard about that kind of tales, too."

"I did. Although I preferred when Dad told me real stories about our world, sometimes, especially when I was very little, he used to tell me a tale like that about a young king and his faithful knight."

Another caress in the heart, at that point that Levi didn't remember. He holds Erwin, and when he returns the gesture with his arm, both sideways against each other, Levi experiences the most intense nostalgia he remembers to have felt.

He looks at Erwin's eyes, looks at his blond hair, more golden than gold, and he wonders, again, if his mother told him that tale precisely that night, after his question, just by chance.

"Some people say that children's stories have a bit of truth, that they are idealistic versions of things that really happened," Erwin says. “Maybe, in a past we don’t know about, the Ackermans were there, in the shadows, as the most powerful clan of knights, fighting for people’s freedom.”

“I can tell they won for sure,” Levi responds ironically.

“I’m sure they tried.”

Levi feels cold on the nape, but Erwin’s arm holds him tightly enough. He sees how Erwin tries to reach the end of the sheet with his fingers, surely perceiving his cold; Levi takes the sheets and covers them both up the shoulders.

Something, inside his heart, relaxes a little bit.

Why now?

"Maybe I'm like one of those knights of the old tales, although I don’t give a fuck about that," Levi concludes.

"Well, if we think about Mikasa as Eren’s knight, who’s your king then, faithful knight?"

Erwin’s tone is a soft one. Levi looks at him without doubts.

Maybe his mother hadn't told him about the Ackermans, he thinks, but she had done something better.

She had talked about what would define his entire life, the path he has chosen to share with this huge human being. Huge not because his height, but because the dreams that his eyes, as blue as the most beautiful skies, allow to show on its horizon.

"What kind of brat are you?" Levi answers.

When the warm they share them unleashes the same reaction in their bodies, with the naturalness of their shared nudity waking up their instincts, Levi breathes hard over Erwin’s mouth. Slowly, lips look for lips carried by the magic of this moment of peace encapsulated in time. Only when he perceives him, when Erwin’s lips kiss him softly, Levi feels better.

Some people could think he's nuts, other ones could judge him for having motivations that no one else would understand, but Levi is pretty sure about one thing: following Erwin Smith is something that every fictional knight would like to dedicate their lives, something that worth more than the life of a thousand cardboard kings, kings remembering their people to fill their ego, not to make them happy. And what peace invades him to think about it, peace burning in that unknown place of his heart, the one that shines so much right now, when he feels he has made the right choice.

Erwin’s life it's the one that he, infected by the brightness of their dreams, will never regret to protect as the bravest knight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Thanks for the kudos in the previous chapter. ♥
> 
> Here, I wanted to talk about the Ackerbond from the idea of protection of that liege. I wanted to be subtle: Levi's Ackerbond to Erwin shines when they trust each other, when they protect each other. And I used Kuchel because I love her so much!
> 
> Thanks for reading!!! ♥♥♥


	3. Story 3. Only one bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why is he so unique? Erwin thinks about his feelings for Levi during an intimate moment on bed.

**H**aving Levi with him in this bed, sharing this kind of space with him, is different. In fact, it’s always different, because we are all different, but no: with Levi, another kind of things happen, another kind of sensations flow.

Being in this bed with Levi is an out of body experience.

It's not about his beauty, which is moving because of how intense, how unique it is, nor how much they complement each other even in the most intimate. Levi's charm, actually, comes from the scars that he has.

He sees them under the dim light that illuminates them, which stains the entire room in bronze and shadows: kissing the whitish chest of inconceivable softness considering the strength that he has, Levi's scars are on his skin without actually being there. They are like flares, stars that ignite, that extinguish, that not every pupil would tolerate to look at. They are scars that not everyone can read, not because the language in which they express themselves is incomprehensible, but because Levi himself forbids his reading. Because reaching him is difficult, it always will be. Because although Levi cares for everyone with a naturalness worthy of the best men who can populate this world, he's not someone who can tolerate self-directed concern. This moves Erwin, infects him with an unusual tenderness that he’s barely able to bear.

It's about wondering if he deserves this knowledge, the one which allows him to read Levi perfectly every time they are alone, on this bed in which they share the same intimacy, one that is not just physical, that is emotional, mental, spiritual.

Absolute.

The back arches in the only way it could do it given the scars that this body carries: it does so abruptly. The scars explain why with very few words: violence has educated Levi, it has shaped him from day one, during the path he has made up to this precise moment. To express feelings, to allow himself to accept them, to enjoy them, to treasure them; everything that’s incompatible with violence is difficult for Levi. The skin screams so much experiences that reaching the fragility it covers is something that would be impossible for anyone.

Until Erwin, who has Levi in his arms and continues to wonder why, with the weight of so many deaths on his shoulders, he deserves to be able to read the scars that cover this skin.

Erwin holds each Levi's arm on each side of their bodies. Keeping them immobilized, he descends with kisses that go from the chest to the stomach. Levi shakes abruptly with every touch, almost as if the kisses bothered him, but it’s not the case: Erwin has learned to understand that Levi is shaken like this for a single reason, that tied to violence.

He doesn't know how to react to tenderness.

Many nights inside this bed has needed Erwin to understand. Because what attracted them, in the first place, was a sort of chemistry that suffocated them when they looked at each other, something related to lust, not love. But how inevitable to fall in love when he noticed the endless difficulties Levi had to get carried away in every aspect of a relationship. Like a cat mistreated by its owners, by the environment, by other cats, thrown into the dirty streets of the Underground City without tools but full of needs. The survival of the strongest inside the worst scenario, having had to learn to survive punch by punch, loss by loss. How does a stray cat react to the tender caresses of a human?

Attacking to protect itself.

He laughs over Levi's navel: what an easy idea to compare Levi with a cat, but how useful the metaphor despite being a cliché. When it's about him, it works, because the first encounters on this bed were full of urgency, instinct, need over mere enjoyment. He was like a cat; he was scared behind the scars.

How long it took him to show Levi that he didn't have to defend himself from a caress that was full of good intentions.

Kneeling before Levi, Erwin separates his legs with an almost ceremonial slowness. He kisses the inside of the right thigh, just below the knee; Levi shivers when his mouth touches him. The tense body takes its time to relax, the same time that Erwin needs to reach the end of the thighs, where the excitement is already explicit. When Erwin kisses Levi there, when his mouth begins to give him pleasure, Levi stifles a groan as he clenches his teeth. He breathes between those, growls, and his voice becomes throatier between gasps. His legs tremble on each side of Erwin's head, his hands holding on to the sheets with too much strength, one incompatible with the slowness and gentleness that Erwin's mouth expresses.

"Shit!" Erwin hears Levi mumble without air, as if he were holding himself, at the same moment in which a hand passes from the sheet to Erwin's hair, which squeezes in order to ask for more.

Erwin uses his left hand to hold Levi's one, both over his hair. Stroking it with his fingers, urges Levi's hand to calm down, to not to be on the defensive, to not react violently to such a sweet attention.

Rejecting Levi's violence would be like rejecting him himself: it's nonsense. However, they have learned, together, to find pleasure in tenderness, too. For Erwin, it wasn’t that hard; for Levi, was the hardest thing. To learn how to accept love was almost impossible for him.

To learn how to accept that human hand’s caress on this bed has been overwhelming, but beautiful, for both.

That was the key to reach the rest.

Erwin can read the scars thanks to that learning, he knows how to read them, just as he knows how to look between them: they cover, all of them, a unique, special sensibility, that deserves to be protected, yes, but also pleased.

Maybe that's why he deserves to share this bed with Levi, thinks Erwin by accelerating a little, almost imperceptibly, the constant movement of his mouth. Maybe that's why, because at some point of those suffocating first meetings Levi's scars opened wide enough to let him know what it was under the violence.

A warm heart that still knows how to feel.

Despite the punches, the abandonments, the losses, the injustice, Levi's heart has never stopped feeling nor has allowed itself to lose that warmth. And how surprising it would have been for any other person, surely, to find this treasure inside this heart. But not for Erwin, who knew it from the first time in the Underground City, from the first image of Levi flying free through the dark, artificial sky.

Erwin saw this heart full of freedom from the first second, and never hesitated, and never fought to tame him, because doing so would have meant taking away everything that made him unique.

Levi was shaped by violence and he's not good at expressing emotions, but that will never mean he doesn't feel them. Nor does it mean that this heart shouldn’t repress the need of exploring itself through other kinds of emotions, those that are incompatible with the skin that covers it, but that are related to its unlimited capacity to feel.

This heart that beats so hard while Erwin accelerates deserves to have empathy for itself, the same that it always has for everyone else.

That’s why Levi allowed him to read his scars, maybe, because Erwin inspired him enough confidence to open his heart in two. When Erwin remembers himself frustrated, defeated, worried before Levi after a hard expedition full of blood and death, when he remembers Levi encouraging him in the midst of desolation, he understands that yes.

As if it were the most natural thing for them, people who carry different difficulties when it comes to feeling, they have given to each other the right confidence to do so without fear, without regretting. That's why this bed they share far away from the world, which is the complete symbol of what their relationship means, has allowed him to read Levi's scars, because Levi trusts him as much as Erwin does.

Because Levi knows how to read his scars, too.

The mouth stops, but doesn't abandon what it does; Erwin caresses the hand that hasn't stopped tightening his hair when he returns to a slow, leisurely pace, without any urgency. Magically, or not, Levi's hand changes, relaxes, and caresses his hair instead of tightening it, while his voice, when panting, softens. The legs stop trembling, the eyelids fall; Levi has opened his scars, cleared the path to his own feelings.

Only then Erwin accelerates, and intensifies his movements, and gives place to his experience in order to give Levi the pleasure he deserves.

Levi screams, he does it fiercely, the only way he knows how to do it when the heat of enjoyment expands through his body as it explodes between his legs. Then he doesn't do anything else.

Erwin dries his lips and gets up. He takes Levi in his arms, who falls on his chest, and opens the sheets. He puts him to bed, covers him and does the same to his right. He looks at him, and although Levi's eyes express coldness, no: under the pupils, the emotion is extreme.

How stupid to think of feelings as a weakness, Erwin concludes, feeling the emotion in Levi's eyes as an exact reflection of his. The feelings of a warm and free heart that hasn’t lost the desire to beat can be incompatible with violence, but not with strength.

Because that's Levi for Erwin, in this bed and everywhere: he's the strongest person he knows. Not only for being able to kill titans out there, for being that guy of the nicknames that make him so popular or the soldier who inspires all his comrades to not give up.

Levi is the strongest because it's his heart the one who feels the most.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Thanks for your kudos and thanks again to Snorgipom for such a nice comment! Thank you!
> 
> In this chapter I wanted to use that "only one bed" as the place that allows them to know each other, the one where all what they are reaches its ultimate form, the most special one. Maybe it's silly, I'm sorry, but in my head Erwin is so devoted to Levi... I wanted to show that.
> 
> Thanks for reading!!! ♥♥♥


	4. Story 4. Height difference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being short and being a man it's something that carries lots of prejudices in their society. But they are just that, prejudices.

**T**here are many mysteries in this world, too many; Erwin is convinced that much of what cannot be explained regarding the smallest details of everything that surrounds them comes from the other side of the walls. Beyond the titans, everything should have an explanation.

Even prejudices.

He listens to them as he walks with Levi through Mitras, where they have arrived this morning to have several meetings related to the Survey Corps: _Is that Levi, Humanity's Strongest? That guy? Seriously? How is that possible?_

_How is it possible for him to be so short and so strong at the same time?_

Why people judge his strength like that? As if strength couldn’t come in a small package.

Erwin is not sure if all the chatter that surrounds them every time, when they walk through the Capital, bothers Levi or not. However, he's convinced that those words are nothing more than that, that prejudices, some that speak more of those who pronounce them than of Levi himself.

As usual, Erwin thinks admiring Levi from the corner of his eye, having him by his side reforms concepts he has dragged his entire life. Because Levi has another kind of origin, he has been through other kinds of things, and being with him always means learning to look at things from another perspective.

With regard to height, Erwin’s prejudice had to do with beauty: he has always considered women shorter than him attractive, perhaps for being a man and for having been educated in a world where good men love women, not other men. Looking at Marie, for example, was easy: she was shorter than him and of average height for what is considered aesthetic in a woman.

She was the kind of woman he _had_ to look at.

But then Levi arrived, and Erwin’s unexplored attraction to other men found with whom to flow, and he saw in him more than a short person; he saw a short man, a man who in society couldn't be considered attractive. He knew, falling in love with his beauty, being unable to take his eyes off him, that the simple idea of keeping prejudices about height was absurd.

Like a…!

"Erwin,” he says.

Levi is three steps ahead of him on a downhill street. He’s wearing his uniform, the leather straps tighten different areas of his body, and his garments are small, and his hands are small, and his feet are small. Everything is so small in Levi’s image in front of him! But how beautiful he is despite being small, how attractive beyond his height.

Or...?

"What the fuck are you thinking? Why are you blushing, creepy old man?" Levi asks with his hands on his hips.

Erwin sighs, confused: it's full sunset, and the sunlight seems to beautify even more what is beautiful without it. Levi, three steps from him on that downhill street, the most perfect image Erwin has ever seen.

And it's not _despite_ his height.

It's _because_ of it, among other things.

It's for his 1.60 that Levi is beautiful. Is also for the sweet shapes of his face, for the hidden emotion of his eyes, for the softness of his skin, for his purely athletic figure. He's beautiful for the black hair that falls over his white forehead in contrast to the intensity of his gaze, for how thin are his eyebrows and lips, for the absolute neatness of everything that involves him. Levi is beautiful just because he's Levi, and each element that makes him up contributes its part to the innate harmony that constitutes him. If something were different in the image, he wouldn't be Levi.

That 1.60 is the most magical secret of his beauty.

"I was thinking about how beautiful you are," Erwin replies with the softest of smiles.

Levi turns his back and moves down the street, among the last rays of sun that illuminate his walk.

"You and your cheesy stuff. Hurry up, I don't want to waste another minute of my life visiting pigs in this city."

Erwin nods when he smiles once more. He reaches Levi, and they walk next to each other. Under the sunset that comes from behind, their shadows drag in front of them. One long, one short.

Beautiful, both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if my stories are a little dumb or something. I'm enjoying so much to write again! If you give a chance to my story, thank you so much. :') 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!! ♥♥♥


	5. Story 5. Rumors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems that nose knows too much...

**L**evi sighs watching new recruits training vertical maneuvering among the trees that surround the headquarters. Today, the sun of spring is stronger than it should. Or is it his imagination?

Or maybe the heat comes from the thought that hasn't left him alone since last night, when in Erwin's room finally happened what they both had been anticipating for so long, that mute but intense desire that, until then, had only been fully expressed through looks.

He crosses his arms with his eyes closed: it was amazing, he has to admit it. They had already kissed countless times in the last two months, but they hadn't had sex yet. He knows it's wrong, that they shouldn't have allowed themselves that night alone being the Commander and the Captain, but the desire is strong, yes, stronger than both as the feeling they share, in which they reflect the other with astounding accuracy.

Unintended: He has fallen in love with Erwin Smith. How pathetic, but how inevitable.

How wonderful after all the mess.

He frowns keeping his eyes closed under the sun, losing himself in that darkness tinted in orange that he sees; he has to stop the images that come to him, that beauty of Erwin getting out of control over him, breathing hard, with his wet and reddened mouth kissing him, touching him…

The noise of a curious nose brings him back to reality: in front of him, Mike smiles as he does whenever he finishes smelling someone.

"Don't you dare," Levi blurts out.

Mike ignores him.

"See you later, Captain," he whispers as he leaves, but not before smelling him for the last time.

"Shit!" Levi mutters to himself when he sees how Mike runs to Hanji, Nanaba and Moblit, whom are protecting themselves from the sun under a tree that is about ten meters from his position.

Mike reaches them, says something, and Hanji starts shouting "yes!" while Moblit struggles to calm them down. Nanaba, blushing, covers her mouth with her hands. Mike doesn't stop smiling and pointing at his nose as that tool that has confirmed what they had been rumbling for a long time behind them, that the tension between Erwin and him wasn't hate, but quite the opposite.

Yes, the smell has confirmed it.

"Disgusting…"

"Something happened?" Erwin asks behind him.

Levi tenses even more: it's the first time they see each other since he left Erwin's room in the middle of the night. Annoyed, he looks at Mike and the others.

"That bastard smelled me; they know what happened."

"Oh, yes: he smelled me too when we met in the hallway this morning."

Avoiding looking at Erwin, who is standing next to him, Levi looks at the leaves of the trees, swaying delicately by the wind.

"Aren't you worried? They _know_!" Levi asks.

"Well, it seems we are quite noticeable despite our efforts: there are other members of the Survey Corps that rumble that something happens between us, or at least that's what I heard."

"And are you so calm?!"

"No rumor becomes a truth alone: we cannot control what people say, but we can try not to confirm it."

"But I'm telling you that Mike came with his fucking nose and smelled me!"

"We talk about Mike, Nanaba and Hanji: it doesn't worry me they know; I trust them."

"And Moblit? He always runs after shitty-eyes, I've never talked to him."

"He's a good boy, Hanji trusts him: I know he won't say anything."

"And what if someone else…?"

A hand rests on his shoulder. Levi turns barely, and when he looks up, he finds Erwin's eyes, bluer thanks to the sunlight.

Thanks to Levi himself, actually.

"Easy, Levi: I'll take care of this. I'll never allow our relationship to harm our mission."

Levi shakes his shoulder. Erwin understands the message, or that tells him when he releases him. They look straight ahead once more, to the leaves that sway by the wind. They cannot control how the shadows of that tree look like, right? The wind controls those shadows by moving the leaves.

They cannot stop the…

Petra Ral, a recruit who has just joined the Survey Corps, stares at them with red cheeks as she adjusts her vertical maneuvering equipment next to a tree. Noticing that Levi looks at her, she panics and walks away. She seems to smile as she approaches other recruits. Something in her childish gesture reminds him of Isabel for a significant moment.

"Shit," Levi whispers.

How would Isabel have reacted to Levi sleeping with the man who had sworn so much he was going to kill? And Farlan? He would have mocked softly and then left him alone, maybe, but Isabel wouldn't have shut up. She would be screaming with Hanji! Yes, he can imagine that scene without struggle.

"It's about not allowing us to get caught in a delicate situation," Erwin says at his side.

Levi looks back at the trees.

"Roger, Erwin: to avoid to be caught up while we fuck."

"Levi…" Erwin sighs, laughing softly.

"It's basically what you said, idiot."

"I know, but you're so explicit in saying so…" A pause, and Erwin clears his throat before continuing; in the background, they still listen how Hanji shouts, and Mike laughs, and Moblit asks them to calm down. Just because of that, Levi already likes him. "I'm very happy, Levi…"

"Oh no: don't come to me with that kind of shit."

"Was that a 'me too'?"

"Fuck you."

Erwin laughs again, as soft as the wind, just before stepping forward.

"I'll go watch the new recruits. I’ll waiting for you tonight."

Erwin leaves with his forehead held high, with his Commander’s attitude intact: Levi sees him get lost among the trees, with the sun all over him.

How beautiful he is.

Erwin could be cheesy, affectionate, sweet, all those things that Levi has never looked for, but, despite that, he’s right and he knows it.

Levi is very happy, too.

"I'll trust your judgment, old man," Levi whispers as he turns to the opposite side to return to the barracks.

As long as they don’t confirm any rumor and no other Mike with olfactory powers appears, the rumors will not become a truth that the world will never deserve to know.

That truth that only belongs to them.

Their happiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos!!! I know that Mike's nose role in this kind of situations it's a little cliché but I can't help it: I love him!!! XD
> 
> Thanks for reading!!! ♥♥♥


	6. Story 6. Fireworks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin will always be with him, one way or another.

**H**anji spent the last month trying to make new flares for future operations, based on lights and not smoke. The experiment didn't have the expected results: the light is very bright, but it’s not enough for what they need: it only lasts a moment. The next one, it fades away.

Like a life in the hands of tragedy: with no warnings, with no mercy.

It's New Year's Eve. Hanji has proposed to use the failed flares as a midnight show. Recruits who haven't retired from the headquarters to spend the holidays with their families have set tables outside to eat meat that Erwin managed to get for the special occasion; all of them deserve a moment of joy after so much pain. The Survey Corps always needs it; giving themselves a moment like this gives them enough energy to continue.

After dinner, Levi walks away from everyone. Erwin knows where to find him: he’s on the terrace, looking at the stars with a bottle of wine in his hand, sitting at the edge.

"Remembering?" Erwin asks behind him after follow him.

Levi looks at him; he never gets drunk, his resistance to alcohol is enviable. However, like every New Year's Eve, his eyes show more emotions than usual. Erwin, of course, knows why. To know it, he just needs to recognize this terrace as the place where Levi used to spend his free time with Isabel and Farlan in those months prior to the mission where both lost their lives, the same in which the myth of Humanity's Strongest was born.

On this date in particular, Levi is only able to think about them, as well as all their lost comrades. Erwin has spent the last years wondering why _exactly_ this date, but he has never been able to find the answer. He has tried to ask him; he surrendered when he understood that perhaps there’s no particular reason. Also, it's about respecting Levi, someone who has deep difficulties to express his feelings.

"They were too loud," Levi says after drinking a little of wine. It's obvious that he talks about Isabel and Farlan. "Like most of the new recruits, they had a lot of energy."

Erwin sits next to Levi in confidence, knowing that he’s welcome. He is: Levi offers him the bottle once Erwin gets comfortable.

"They were excellent soldiers," Erwin states just after rejecting the wine.

"I know." Levi drinks again. "They’d have contributed a lot."

"They contribute even absent, Levi…"

"You don't have to come with that cheesy shit: I know. I already know it."

Erwin sighs. He knows that, although the words Levi utters may sound aggressive, they are those that Levi chooses to express much more than aggressiveness. They are his way of saying _don't worry about me_ or_ I'll be fine_.

Knowing it, Erwin surrounds Levi’s shoulders with one arm. He smiles when he feels how, despite how Levi usually reacts to his affection, he accepts his hug. Together, they look at the stars, all those brush-strokes that draw thousands of lines in the sky.

"It's up to us, the living, to give meaning to the deaths of our comrades," Erwin says.

"As if everyone were still here, giving us strength with their sacrifice…" Levi replies.

Erwin smiles: he has heard Levi say things like that before. Holding a dying soldier's hand, looking them in the eye with the biggest emotion. Yes, Levi says things like that, and his difficulty for emotional moments makes that kind of words even more honest.

Because Levi believes _everything_ what he says.

"They’re here. They’re in these stars." Erwin is surprised by his own words; tonight, there’s something in the sky that it feels especial. With what power the stars shine tonight, with what charm they seem to tell a thousand and one stories.

He squeezes Levi's shoulders.

"They enlighten us so that we don't forget that they were here once, fighting alongside us, and to inspire every step we take."

"I know that everything you say is a lie," Levi says, "but I choose to believe it, Erwin. I choose to believe in your cheesy shit just for tonight…"

Erwin laughs. With his fingers, he caresses one of Levi's shoulders. What a delicate body he has under his hand, but how strong it really is. That duality that only belongs to Levi is what he loves the most about him. Being able to know both extremes, fragility and strength; allow himself to love the two extremes and everything that is between them…

Levi will not be a star; he already is, all of him. And he shines with his own light every time they give their heart in pursuit of humanity’s victory.

His wings of freedom shine, always.

Erwin giggles like a child; Levi rolls his eyes.

"What kind of shit are you imagining, pervert?" he asks.

“Something really sweet."

"Oh, I see: cheesy shit, again. Stars put you emotional; what an old man. Or is it the new year?"

They look at each other, Erwin’s hand massaging Levi’s shoulder.

"Stars: if I'm honest, I never pay much attention to New Year’s Eve," Erwin explains.

He wonders if Levi will tell him his secret. Surprised, he hears how Levi confesses it without looking into his eyes, with his pupils lost in the stars, again:

"It's the confirmation that I reached this point, that I survived." Levi makes silence; he’s serious, yes, but calm. He drinks more wine before continuing. "We all survived, we are on equal terms. But not everyone will be alive next year. I suppose that… it reminds me of what we lost, but also what we have."

Erwin looks at him: moonlit, Levi looks special. His beauty stands out in another way, it has another kind of mysticism. It's like a giant: under this sky, he seems more invincible than ever.

"Levi…" Erwin sighs. He doesn't know what to say.

No word would be enough; it’s too much.

"I like to remind each person that gives me more strength, keep them in mind when it comes to fighting once again. But that's it, I already said too many cheesy shit; let me drink, I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Erwin nods: his heart doesn’t know how to thank enough the trust that Levi has put on him.

“Okay," he responds.

Without letting go of Levi's shoulders, Erwin lets his eyes get lost in the stars. He feels a hand on his waist, while a cheek presses against his chest. They remain like this, before the sky, until Hanji announces the beginning of the new year by using the failed flares.

They are beautiful.

They explode in lots of colours, paint the stars with them; they shine a second and fade away. Like the lives of their comrades, they return a moment just to remind them that they are still here, among them, giving them all their strength.

They are still here, yes, in the lights that embellish the stars with their ephemeral appearance.

The lights that embellish the most special star that Erwin has known.

"Bedroom, now," Levi demands. Wine never gets him drunk, that hasn't changed, but it's clear that it disinhibits him enough to make an order that’s uncommon on him.

"Sure," Erwin replies by smiling at him.

Levi looks at him: he catches Erwin’s bolo tie, pulls him close and kisses him for a moment. In the mysterious feelings expressed in Levi’s eyes, mysterious for the others, not for him, Erwin reads the request that is implicit in the kiss.

Something like _don't die, idiot_.

"I'll be here…" Erwin promises while he takes Levi by the hand. He doesn't need to finish the sentence so that Levi understands the concept he tries to hide behind the promise.

He will be here, as now, taking him by the hand under so many lights symbolizing everyone's hopes. Or he will be in the stars reminding him that he survives in his strength, waiting for him, counting every second until, in the sky, they could meet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fireworks doesn't exist in canon, right? So, thanks Hanji for being so smart! Sorry if this is too much fluff, but I can't help it. 
> 
> :')
> 
> Thanks for your kudos and comments! ♥♥♥


	7. One wish. Afterlife

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, their paths touch each other again.

Blood. Death. Destruction.

Pain.

Dreams. Wings. A blue brighter than the one that comes from heaven.

Freedom.

Freedom. Absolute freedom before heaven. His chest wide open under the scrutiny of a sun that blinds. Wings letting him fly, wings of freedom covered by blood, but also happiness.

A raw heart absorbing sunlight. A vow, finally fulfilled.

"Your deaths have meaning! Your death has it, Er…!"

Peace.

.

.

.

* * *

**(((Paradis, 844 A.E.Y.*)))**

_*After Eren Yeager_

**.**

**H**e wakes up, and the clarity is barely noticeable behind the curtains of his room. He rubs his eyes.

What a shitty dream.

It's half past six in the morning: enough time to check the weather on the news while having breakfast, but not before taking a shower, getting dressed and doing a quick cleaning. In the end, he's ready.

Time to work.

He leaves his apartment and buys flowers in the store that’s at the corner of the street, some white roses that he carries in his right hand for the rest of the road, the seven blocks of each morning and each sunset. He turns at the corner of Yeager Avenue and comes down Arlert street, right where Freedom Park is. He usually evades the park going through Pixis street, but no: something, he doesn't know what, asks him to break the routine and go through the middle of it.

He stops before his mom's favourite statue.

_Humanity's Strongest Soldier_, he reads on the bronze plaque at the foot of the huge figure of a hooded soldier whose name has been lost between myths and reality, but whose legend remains intact in the modern world.

Despite the pollution that technology has unleashed, that not many people pay attention to history, the reason why the streets have certain names, or why the statues represent certain figures, he likes to think that, that the legend that his mom often told him as a child is still intact somewhere, that of the brave soldier who gave his life during the Great Titanic War. The fight of Eren Yeager, the guy to whom the Avenue owes its name, against The Curse, how history books call a kind of disease that affected the entire population of what is now Paradis, his country, whose blue and white flag with wings in the middle flutters just above the soldier.

The meaning of so many deaths and horror is attached to him, as is attached to the peace they enjoy every day.

Meaning…

The sunlight covers the statue, falls on the covered face of the soldier without a name; Levi looks at it with absolute seriousness.

If what history books say is true, if the Titans existed and threatened the country so many centuries ago, the peaceful era in which they live now has to be more appreciated.

Thinking about it with some disorder, nostalgic of those times of his childhood playing there with his mom and his uncle Kenny, Levi leaves the Freedom Park behind. When he arrives at the teahouse located in a central neighbourhood, his mom is already there, waiting for him to turn the door sign.

"Good morning, sweetie!" Kuchel tells him as she sweeps behind the counter.

Levi accepts a kiss reluctantly; he's not very expressive, much less affectionate, but he has never had the strength to deny signs of affection to his mom. He leaves the roses on the counter, which she thanks with an almost childish smile. She puts them in a vase next to the door, replacing some withered red roses. Just after that, Isabel and Farlan come up, give Kuchel thousands of kisses, as always, and go to the kitchen. They scratch Levi’s hair at the same time before that. This one, in response, growls.

He’s weak to their affection, too.

They open at eight, like every day, the routine of their lives for the last three years, when Levi managed to fulfil the dream of having his own business and stop working as a full-time employee here and there, most of the time as a cleaner in different places. It's not that he didn't like that kind of work, he loves to clean, but that teahouse and his mom's smile are something else.

A calm but stable life, close to his mom and his two best friends, running a family business together: a small dream from the perspective of small minds, perhaps, but the kind of life that someone like him knows how to appreciate.

It's the peace that, for some reason, he could never get tired of.

After opening, the first clients come up: Petra and Oluo, a young couple, peculiar but cute. They ask Kuchel for green tea and two muffins, as usual. Levi sees, from the counter, how they smile at his mom when they receive their breakfast on the table.

"Are you okay, Levi? You look weird," Kuchel tells him when she returns to the counter.

"What do you mean?" Levi asks without paying attention, cleaning an already clean teacup.

"Well…, you haven't said ‘shit’ yet! That's weird," his mom replies by squeezing his shoulder warmly. "You look thoughtful."

In fact, he is. He doesn't know why, but that shitty dream has left him that way, thoughtful. More than anything, one detail about it: the voice. The guy who shouted those words had his own voice, the same one.

_Your deaths have meaning_…

_Your_ death…

He hears how the door opens: it's Gunther, a guy who works in the office that’s next to the teahouse. Levi goes to attend on him.

"I'm fine" he whispers to his mom before leaving the counter.

He doesn't have time to think about that, not about shitty dreams.

.

.

.

Shortly after lunch, Levi uses his Smartphone to read the news. The shitty stock market went down again, Hizuru won the world cup final against Marley in that shitty sport called football of soccer or something like that, the president says that exportations are important for Paradis because one shit and other shit… Bored, he opens the search engine; he's not an avid reader, but today he feels an unusual curiosity about the statue. When he’s about to write _Humanity’s Strongest Soldier_, the hears the door once again.

His mom is talking with Isabel in the kitchen, so he decides to attend on the client who has sat very close to the white flowers, next to the window through which the sun enters the store. He approaches to him, stops at the table, and it's as if time stops for a moment. The next one, he feels like a jerk.

It's the most handsome man Levi has ever seen in his entire life.

"Can I help you?" he asks.

He doesn't want to sound cold; he knows that he must be kind to new clients, but warm treatment it’s not his thing. However, he tries, and what he gets is a beautiful smile. 

"A black tea, please, and a slice of lemon cake," the guy says after reading the menu, and what a deep voice he has.

Out of breath, although hiding it behind his eternal coldness, Levi nods and moves away. When he sees his mom, who has returned to the counter, he knows exactly what she's thinking.

"I had never seen him around here before. He's handsome, huh?" she says.

He gives no answer; he can't, he knows well that she has already noticed the obvious.

No, he has never come to the teahouse, and he's handsome, very handsome.

_Too much_, in fact.

… Shit!

Levi cannot lie, not to himself: he seems sculpted in order fulfil his fantasies, those that he would never confess to another human being. He's the kind of man that attracts him, he has the exact height, the exact hair, the exact smile. The thick eyebrows could be debated, but not: in that face, everything looks perfectly combined. It's a mixture that he has never seen, but that looks really fine.

While he prepares his order on a tray, Levi notices how the guy puts an old book on the table. He watches him read for more seconds than he should considering he's working.

Beautiful.

Rejecting his deplorable behaviour, Levi grabs the tray and approaches the guy once more. Puts everything on the table, the cake, the teapot, the cup, a glass of orange juice…

"The cake looks delicious," the guy says, and his voice sounds so good that Levi cannot believe it: he wants to make conversation, but his work ethic doesn’t allow it.

He puts the empty tray against his chest, sighs, nods and turns around.

"Hey…"

Levi stops.

"Yes?" he asks in the most professional way possible.

"I think I saw you this morning. You were in Freedom Park, right? I was reading before classes and I saw you before the statue."

What?

Intrigued, Levi looks at him again.

"It was me."

The guy smiles. There’s some mystery in his gesture, in the way that he looks at him, in how he rubs the book that’s under his left hand.

"I was reading about him today, about Humanity's Strongest Soldier." He shows him the book, and an illustration very similar to the statue catches Levi's attention. “He was as important as Eren Yeager, Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman for humanity’s victory, but history was a little unjust with him: everybody knows that he was the strongest, but nobody knows his name. The saddest thing, at least for me, is to think about how nobody knows that he allowed victory with his sacrifice. His role was determinant, Yeager wouldn’t have come that far without him and his strength; he deserves to be more remembered.”

Levi’s shoulders fall. He didn’t know that. He didn’t know that the soldier of his childhood had been that important for humanity’s victory.

"That’s… pretty interesting. Are you a history teacher or something?" Levi asks.

"Precisely, I recently transferred to Mitras, I lived next to Kruger Port."

"Oh…" Levi fixes his eyes on him, and the guy smiles again with a particular enthusiasm.

Is it his idea, or is he flirting with him? If he's doing it, he's being clumsier than what he would expect from a guy who has already that age, who's not a teenager.

"I'm still a little lost, but it's a nice place."

"It is. Sometimes there’s too much noise, public transport suffocates you, people are dirty, but there are many places to go."

"And many statues to visit. It's exciting."

Levi raises an eyebrow after the guy’s last words: he doesn't take his eyes off him, and how blue they are, as blue as the sky, or more.

As the blue of their flag, that blue covered by white wings.

"Yeah, I suppose," Levi replies, trapped in the blue that he can't stop contemplating.

The guy holds out a hand:

"I'm Erwin, nice to meet you. What's your…?"

"Levi."

He accepts the hand. The touch only lasts two seconds, but it’s enough: there’s an electricity there, something unusual.

It works.

"You have a nice teahouse, Levi. The chemistry teacher recommended it to me, they told me that they always come here to read."

That's it, a chemistry teacher.

Shitty eyes, no doubt.

"You know Hanji…"

"Yeah, they are… smart. And peculiar."

"They’re nuts, let's be honest."

And Levi owes them a free tea for this.

"Then, Levi… What were you doing looking at that statue?" Erwin asks after giggling.

A half smile escapes from him upon hearing his name in that voice.

He wants to know? Okay:

"I was thinking about peace, that sometimes we don't value it enough. I was thinking about the importance of remembering those things, not to get too lost in things that keep us away from reality: many people died before that old civilization disappeared after the Great Titanic War, they died for our future. I think it's important to remember it."

Something moves him deeply towards the end: that's why he stopped before the statue.

The dream, his voice shouting that about the meaning. Exactly what Erwin was reading today.

Somehow, it's as if he had dreamed to be that being, that of the statue, Humanity's Strongest Soldier.

Erwin smiles in a charming way, looking at him without blinking. Levi realizes that something in his words has moved his client, too.

"Would you accept me a tea, Levi, or do you want something else?"

"I'm working," he whispers, although his tone sounds more intimate than usual, one of his hands resting on the table, close to the book that Erwin keeps under his hand.

"I know, sorry for the inconvenience, but I think something good would come out after this."

.

.

.

The bastard was right: something good came out. The best sex Levi has had in life.

And maybe much more than that.

He looks at him: Erwin is next to him in bed, as relaxed as he is. Levi accepted an invitation to dinner after that conversation, his mom insisting with her eyes at a distance. _Don't let him go, sweetie!_ she seemed to shout at him.

Dinner led them to drink wine in Erwin's apartment, and wine (and the mutual and undeniable attraction, and the fantastic talk about history that Erwin gave him, and the chemistry that seemed to cause a powerful electricity between them with a simple touch) led them to bed. Between the sheets, something worked beyond their compression: it was as if Ymirsm, the official religion of Paradis, was right despite the usual nonsense, as if it were true that all the inhabitants of Paradis are part of a constellation, that each star is connected to the other by paths that join within the Goddess of Creation, Ymir, the Guardian of the Coordinate, that point where all lives are one.

Her heart.

Erwin looks at him, too; in his eyes, Levi reads the same misunderstanding, the same surprise.

"It was fantastic," Erwin says softly, stroking one of Levi’s arms under the sheets. He looks pretty moved, suddenly.

"A man of your age shouldn't say such cheesy things."

"I… I can't help it." After the warmest and most harmonious laugh that Levi has heard, an idea that despite sounding exaggerated only describes what he perceives, Erwin gets serious. He looks for his hand under the sheets, grabs it, squeezes it. "It was as if I knew you years ago, Levi. It was…"

"Cheesy shit. It was good."

It was more than good, much more, but Levi is not skilled when it comes to admitting things of that kind. For a moment, he wonders if his innate aggressiveness could be misunderstood; Erwin strokes the back of his hand with his thumb, in the minimum space that separates them. By perceiving the caress and seeing the soft smile in Erwin's mouth, who looks at him with an adoration worthy of an instant crush, he feels so understood that it hurts.

It cannot be.

"Levi…"

"What?"

"Please stay. Please…"

Levi contains a grin.

"If you insist…"

The hand releases him; one arm surrounds his shoulders with the most seductive kindness. The arm draws him to Erwin's chest, on which Levi lies down naturally, as if he had been doing it for years.

For centuries.

They remain still, whisper unfinished dialogues; the peace that reigns in this bed is inconceivable.

"Thank you…" Erwin whispers, more asleep than awake.

"Thanks for what?" Levi asks more for inertia than for feeling intrigued. He cannot feel the latter, not in the midst of so much peace.

"For what you did…"

The phrase finds no explanation, ever. At least not in this life. Erwin doesn't know what he says, Levi doesn't know what he has done, but _he did_, yes, and to thank him so much effort is the least he deserves.

Because thanks to him, centuries ago, the deaths of all his comrades found meaning. Because in his swords he gathered the strength of all the fallen. Because he managed to be the last one in the face of death.

Because Levi fought tirelessly and, with his strength, saved them all.

And fulfilled his vow.

And now he only deserves peace, and love, and happiness around him.

He deserves the thing that he wanted the most: _this_.

Erwin.

They, together, trapped in a wall made of peace with no titans around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your comments, your kudos and for giving a chance to this little anthology. ♥
> 
> For this chapter, I wanted to imagine a reincarnation possible thanks to the Coordinate (?) for their afterlife. And I wanted to think about it in a world as modern as ours, but with their history, that's why I made them live in Paradis, a country where everything happened and history and religion say different things about it. 
> 
> This is my wish: I want to think that they will meet again. :')
> 
> Thanks from the bottom of my heart for being with me during this seven chapters. I hope to write about Eruri again in some future! And thanks to Eruri Week for so much inspiration!
> 
> THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! ♥♥♥
> 
> ~NMT2019


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